People who joined us halfway have derailed us – Customs Boss Hameed Ali on Buhari Administration

President Muhammadu Buhari

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd.) has said that people who were absent during President Muhammadu Buhari‘s journey to the presidency and are now present have hijacked the vision.

Ali, according to Punch, spoke at the unveiling of an ultra-modern Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) office complex in Jabi, Abuja, on Friday.

The Buhari Support Organisation is the umbrella group of 189 bodies that campaigned for the president in the 2015 elections.

Attending the event was the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello; Bauchi State Governor Mohammed Abubakar; and their Plateau State counterpart, Simon Lalong.

Ali asked that the organisation return to the study room and fight for good governance. He said:

We have been infused by people who were not part of this journey and these people are the ones that call the shots today. That is why we are derailing.

We are the ones that will be asked to account for what happened. Are we willing to face Nigerians and tell them that we have failed? I think this is the time for us to come together, create a system that is very robust enough to fight back and take back government in our hands and ensure that we deliver.

I will, therefore, ask my colleagues of the BSO to go back to the study room. This is a commission, but it is also the beginning of the fight for good governance. We must get back to the trenches, draw our own battle plan and battle line. I enjoin you to have the same commitment we had in 2015; I implore you to bear with us and commit yourself to a better future for Nigeria.

We will be calling on you from now on and we will be working day and night. We must do so because we want to save our name at the end of the day and the name of the President for what he is doing.

He added that the administration is losing its mission and vision. He said:

Let me say here without fear of being contradicted that I think halfway through the journey, we are losing our core values. We are losing our vision and mission and I think that the idea of our being here today is to look critically at what we need to do to get back on track.

There is no doubt that we have derailed because we are not doing what we say we want to do. Why is it so? We need to find an answer to that. If we do find an answer; then, what should we do to get us all back on track? We owe this great nation and the 180 million Nigerians the duty to give good governance.

Good governance is what they voted for and good governance is what they expect to get and they deserve that. We, therefore, as BSO, have a great task ahead of us. My dear comrades, the battle and the job start now.

We have won one battle by taking over power. But what we make of this power is essential to us and to humanity. Therefore, I want to take this opportunity to tell my colleagues here that we have to change the narrative. When we were out there working and jumping on the streets and reaching every corner, we were shouting change, change for a better Nigeria.

Now, the keyword is good governance for Nigerians. We must agree that we cannot finish our four years without delivering and leaving something to be remembered for in this country for a long time to come. We have no problem with our President because he is on course.

Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawal, also spoke at the event.

Lawal said that “by the grace of God,” Buhari will run for president in 2019 to complete “the good work he has started.” He said:

l believe that we have every justification to be happy because the President campaigned on three major pillars of anti-corruption, fighting insecurity across the country and revitalising the economy of Nigeria.

It has been a very, very good journey so far and I also believe that Mr. President and Nigerians have a future beyond 2019. What he has started, by the grace of God, he should be able to complete, up to 2023.

I also believe that the future is bright and by the grace of God, by 2019, we would have achieved so much in this administration and Mr. President would have no option but to continue the good work he has started.